'Bond-link' car could fetch £250k

An Aston Martin car with special features, thought to be the inspiration for the car driven by fictional spy James Bond, is to be auctioned.

The Aston Martin DB 2/4, made in 1955, could fetch as much as £250,000 when it comes under the hammer at a Coys auction at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on July 12.

The car was off the road collecting dust and rust for many years until a father-and-son team bought it and restored it.

It was during this restoration that the car's links with M15 and with Bond creator Ian Fleming came to light.

An Aston Martin DB5, complete with gadgets, appeared in the 1964 Bond film Goldfinger and it is thought that this car was modelled on the DB 2/4 now up for sale.

The car to be auctioned has a number of one-off special items, including reinforced steel bumpers, a heavy-duty anti-interference ignition system, driver's seat connections for two-way radio and/or a homing device, and a device which accurately computes time and distance in relation to a pre-selected average speed.

Coys managing partner Chris Routledge said: "The story around this car and its discovery is phenomenal. It was owned by Philip Ingram Cunliffe-Lister, whose father was Lord Swinton, a close confidant of Winston Churchill and head of MI5 during the Second World War.

"Moreover, the vehicle was regularly at Ian Fleming's direct next-door neighbour in Kent, and indeed it was the next-door neighbour's house which was also used as inspiration in the Bond novels, this time as (the villain) Drax's residence in the novel Moonraker."